Hospital Blames Technician as Kids Die Due to Anaesthesia-Oxygen Mixup

While two children lost their lives in government-run Maharaja Yashwantrao Hospital in Indore after being wrongly administered anaesthesia instead of oxygen, the hospital authorities are unwilling to take the blame. Instead, the authorities claimed that the technician who laid the pipes was responsible for the unfortunate incident.

"It was not possible to actually know from which line oxygen was coming and from which line nitrous oxide was coming because the pipelines are concealed. We do not have any mechanism to tell which gas is coming out from the port," Assistant Superintendent of the hospital Dr Sumit Shukla said.

Calling it an unfortunate incident, hospital authorities are holding those involved in construction of the operation theatre responsible for the loss of lives. "The technician who was assigned to build this new operation theatre had wrongly connected the oxygen line to the nitrous line and that's why this unfortunate incident took place," Dr Shukla said.

"The technician who had had set the lines was called. He has given in writing that it was his mistake. So we had filed an FIR in the local police station and they have arrested that person," he added.

While five-year-old Ayush died on May 27, the following day an infant Rajveer also breathed his last. Initially the hospital failed to determine the cause but a probe revealed that the pipeline that was supposed to supply oxygen to patients was carrying nitrous oxide, an anaesthetic agent.

"Ayush died during Hernia surgery on May 27, while Rajveer (1) was being operated for a deformity on May 28, in the hospital's recently inaugurated operation theatre," Dr Shukla said.

The operation theatre, which was inaugurated on May 24, has been sealed, he said.

Madhya Pradesh Health Minister Narottam Mishra also assured a probe into the incident. "This happened due to the ignorance of the hospital authorities. We are taking the matter seriously. Nitrous oxide and oxygen lines were together, this was the issue. We have ordered a probe. The gas lines will be checked again," he said.